Vanamonde: Wish I could help. I do know that in Japan, white is associated with death, unlike in the U.S. where it’s black. Perhaps it’s a whole yin-yang thing? Anime takes color very seriously and there’s large portions of the stories the general American public misses since we don’t get their color-associations.

Vanamonde: Ah, yes. That caused quite a few chuckles in my French class back in the day. Also reminds me that common thought was that every time you took a bath, some of your life-essence went down the drain.

Well, home from work early today. Had to pick up my son as he appears to have an ear infection. And, my wife has been working overtime for about a week trying to dig out of a hole for a project at work.

imag1narynumber: Thank you, I think. This serial is somewhat inspired by the knowledge of RPGs and DnD that I’ve absorbed from other geeks. I confess to never having played very much of either – only Neopets and a computer game called Yoda Stories.

WNDRWolf: Did you think of breakfast every time Paul Maki said it?

Lejon: You have to listen to the episode to get what all the mmmMMMMmmms are about.

You know, I must confess that I think of cereal as well when Amy introduces her story. But, I didn’t when JB said it during RBT. Something about the tonal quality of your two voices that I can’t quite describe that gives me differently visuals.

Well Transformers 2 was good, if you enjoyed the first one you will like this one.

Van: Sorry to report that Megan Fox was left too long in the oven again. She also had magic white pants that would clean themselves between scenes. I have to admit my little sister pointed out the pants thing. My attention was elsewhere :D.

My workplace is finally going to absorb me into the main building from my current space, a disused debt collection agency in an adjacent building part-owned by my current employer. This move is to happen before the first of the month, but they still don’t know exactly when, and they keep half-joking that it will not happen for 2 weeks.

But the lease is up at the former debt collectors, so there is a chance my department will get evicted, though they assure me that is unlikely. They still have heavy automated machinery in the space I am supposed to move into, which needs to move before they can give a greenlight.

Did you guys hear that Megan Fox was being considered to play Buffy Summers in the new non-Whedon BTVS film? Homie don’t play dat. I think she’s hot with all the tattoos and whatnot, but Buffy she’s not.

Cj, when you watch Buffy, stick with it. When it first aired, hubby and I actually stopped watching it after the first couple of episodes. We caught season one again in summer reruns, by the end, we were quite ready to continue watching season two and, when it came out, Angel.

iN: Watchmen was the first time we’d ever congregated on Skype for a palooza. Previously, everyone had watched the course material and independently contributed their own content. I’ll post a voting site later, if I have time.

I think it’s strong point is NOT it’s visuals but the tight/quirky interaction of it’s ensemble cast. That and the fast paced, pithy dialogue that frequently ensues between the characters.
Sort of like with “Firefly”.

Now if somebody could explain why Vista seemed to run better on this low spec computer than on my dual core desktop, which also has 2 gig of ram and a dedicated ATi graphics card that doesn’t use system ram..it would be another computer puzzle solved.

ditto: Thanks, I’ll certainly accept said article enthusiastically. At this point I just don’t get the reason one would use a pointer over a variable. But perhaps I should give it more than, oh, five minutes, and turn the page.

agreed on Farah Fawcett- I wish she could of gotten married before she died. Her poor boyfriend. I read that interview where he was saying as soon as she was well enough to say yes they were getting married.. Makes me get so choked up. Hers is one of the ugly and tragic cancer stories out there.

It’s actually a fairly physical workout. A standard class is about 90 minutes long (give or take) divided into roughly three sections. We start with calisthenics and aerobics (push ups, jumping jacks, etc), then we move on to kicks, followed by actual self defense. This changes somewhat day to day as we will also do sparring, rolls etc.

ditto, the ATM was working, which is good since I needed cash to pay for my groceries. But, since everybody needed cash for their groceries, I figure it won’t be long before the machine runs out of cash.

I’ve often wanted to get into a martial art of some sort. I think I could do with a bit of exercise, and a little knowledge on self-protection couldn’t hurt. Lately I’ve been looking more and more at Krav Maga – the Jewish martial art… It’s very appealing to me for some reason.

Hubby forgot what it’s like to be home for the summers. Only home for a couple of hours and and has made smart-ass comments while I was cleaning the bathroom (don’t like to work with bleach cleaners in a black shirt so I take it off). It’s going to be a long summer, I think.

Lejon: I say, if you’re into, go for it! The nice thing about Krav Maga is it’s self-defense-based. So you’re not going to run through katas or things similar for hours on end. No silly cardio-kickboxing, either.

Van, I had a couple years of High-school wrestling, I can probably handle a take-down. Of course, the point might actually be a take down… Yes, that actually works well with this mental image… I like it… Go!

Good night, Pan! I know, it’s still early, but I have a bad habit of not checking in on the weekends. I would make a bad offspring. I suppose I do make a bad offspring. Oh whell… Have a good weekend in any case!

My first thought was the person how wrote that article said he lived in the states for 17 years. That means not living in Canada – therefore does not necessarily have a clear picture of what present conditions are like.

Yes, basic doctor’s/hospital visits are covered but anything else is covered on a province by province basis.

While there is national spending on healthcare, there is also an amount spent by an allocated by the provinces. “free” healthcare is a bit of a misnomer as provinces can opt to charge. Hear in Alberta, up until last year, we were charged $88 a month per family for health care.

Also, what is covered changes from province to province. Again, here in Alberta, ambulance charges are not covered. If you call an ambulance, you will then get a bill in the mail for $400. Prescriptions, dental, optical and even many needed treatments are not covered by our healthcare system. Most Albertans (and presumably most Canadians) actually have outside healthcare plans either provided by their workplace or individually (i.e. purchase of Blue Cross themselves).

Approximately 1/3 of our provincial budget is spent on healthcare, which is a large chunk of change. Also, Alberta spends more per capita on healthcare than any other province but is notorious for having the longest wait times and, generally, some of the poorest healthcare coverage in the country. Take from that what you will.

All that taken in account, however, there are still plenty of advantages to the Canadian system. As I said, basic costs are covered so, if you break your leg, you can be assured you will (eventually) get it looked at and fixed at no cost (except the cost of the pain medication). My daughter goes to the psychiatrist once a month, and she is covered by our federal/provincial system (this is usually a case by case basis for her particular problem). you have a baby… no charges.

You have to weigh the pros and cons, I guess. Long wait times and not everything covered (despite the myth that it is), vs. paying of all you costs. Although, I have a feeling a lot of our issues are bureaucratic more than anything (see cost per capita above)

I’ve also never been turned down my our outside healthcare provider for anything. Take that as you will, too.

I’ve heard some horror stories of Canadian Healthcare, but – – – even for the Toronto guy who waited a full year to get his cracked skull mended – – – the system still cannot possibly be worse than it is here in the U.S.

That said, I have my doubts about Obama’s ability to fix it. Too many powerful opponents who are making too much money off of the current mess.

Amy, nope. Right now I’m at a friend’s house, but we are staying at a Days Inn. Pretty exciting actually. One of our beds is kinda like a slide – unfortunately, my son slid out of it in the middle of the night. We are making some adjustments tonight.

We’ve got the Chicago pride parade today. Very very excited about it. All of Hugh’s brothers and Sisters and nieces and nephews are over and we making it a family event.. I just hope we can shield all the kids from the overly naughty bits in time 🙂

EssBee- I hope you are proud.. I mentioned you and naughty bits in the same post. Score for Essbee. 🙂

I can’t believe how many times a day I hear about twittering.. Call me old fashioned or maybe just dumb but I don’t get it. No offense to anyone, I think you should do what you like, but for me personally I still just don’t get it.

I’ve even noticed when Hugh is watching ESPN they will comment several times a day about what some big sports person twittered about on whatever sports happening of the day.
Then on Pitchfork media they are always making note of crazy rock stars odd tweets.. and I do find those comical sometimes, like the trent reznor ones.. but still as much as I love Trent.. I don’t know… as I said, I am probably just too old or too uncool 🙂

I can say that overall I find Twitter mostly useless. However, I do get some great info from identi.ca. They’re essentially the same, but identi.ca has more tech geeks on it, so for me there’s a lot higher signal-to-noise ratio. But I don’t do any of this stuff mobile. I don’t think that it’s healthy to never be untethered from the webbernets.

As for Trent Reznor, he was at one point the only reason I kept my Twitter account. But he only posts things from his site now, no real personal posts, and never reads what people write to him. He was getting slammed by trolls and he got fed up with it all. The few spoil it for the many.

Sorry for the slow response, imag1narynumber. Yes! I only just saw the emails now. Thanks so much for all of the content.

I am now following imag1narynumber and Vanamonde on Twitter! I’m honored to see “Dpan” as part of your name, Van. I don’t twot often, although, I might start using blip a bit more frequently, which *I think* also shows up on Twitter.

Hugh isn’t here but his list would be something like:
ABTA and ACS
Pitchfork Media
Huffington Post
iTunes store
emusic
BBC news
CME Group
ESPN
and those other financial websites he is on all the time for work

I have a rotating collection of timesink sites. I’ll spend a lot of time at one for a while, then switch to another. In the past, they have included:

Various discussion forums, including the ones at TheForce.net and TrekBBS.com
Fanfiction.net
YouTube (for the anime episodes)
LiveJournal, particularly the journals ‘pottersues’ and ‘limyaael’ and the communities ‘fanficrants’ and ‘watchdom’

I actually forgot about Amazon. I find it easier to look for books to read at Amazon, then i log into my account at the Chicago Public Library and see if the books are at my local branch or if they need to be shipped to my local library. So every couple weeks or so I will spend some quality time on Amazon looking up books.

Bunny- I find it easier to work alone too. Hope people don’t bother you too much today.

Hugh works in so much noise at the board of trade with people screaming around him all the time.. I have no idea how he does it.

Van, I’ll have to look at that link when I get home. So much is not allowed on the internet here.

TSH: They just moved me into this office recently. For the most part it’s not too bad, except for the fact I want to throttle the secretary I inherited. One day, if you either catch me on Skype, or in person (Arizona in Sept – Woot!), I’ll rant. I have trouble believing anybody can be so…

I don’t have many major time-suckers online. I’ve got many tabs open at once, trying to read about many different topics. So my biggest overall is just Google Reader. It aggregates my hundreds of RSS feeds, including my podcasts.

Ya know, I always assumed my brain would get me into a decent job regardless of my lack of a college degree. I took on the Indiana Jones method of making things up as I went along early in my life. I felt it served me pretty well up until recently. Granted, it’s about the worst time to look for a new gig. But I think I’ve painted myself into a corner without funds to buy my way out (And I’m not going into debt to do it, either.). I just applied for a job, any job, at a local (large) company. Kids (read.: people younger than I) were walking in and out, holding jobs I was there to attempt to land, jobs I’d be better at.

Van, no minotaur in the SS books, though the scene w/ Sookie being attacked after a spat in the car w/ Bill and the Dr. does happen in the books. The Dr. actually licks her wounds in the books . . . I LOVED the Dr.’s “fuck you!” response to Erik. I laughed out loud.

I was trying to figure out why Jack Jaffee would want 7 audience members to be pleased by the troupe’s performance before I “remembered” that I was listening to “Trucker Overdrive” by the Ambassor and not to the actual Jaffee.

I spend a few minutes checking some womics (webcomics) every few days.

Other than that, I will bull into an experience hard for a while and then ignore it afterwards. For instance, Tor.com is hosting a WoT commentary by (I think) Leigh Butler and I’ve spent days reading it (and I’m only up to book 4 of… 11?) Beyond that, I’ve not been back to Tor.com

Speaking of which, they have a link on the front page now that says Hulu is coming to Britian with the following link:

The wonderful thing about Tiggers
Is Tiggers are wonderful things
Their tops are made out of rubber
Their bottoms are made out of springs
They’re bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy
Fun, fun, fun, fun, FUN!
But the most wonderful thing about Tiggers
Is I’m the only one

The wonderful thing about Tiggers
Is Tiggers are wonderful chaps
They’re loaded with vim and with vigor
They love to leap in your laps
They’re bouncy, trouncy, flouncy pouncy
Fun, fun, fun, fun, FUN
But the most wonderful thing about Tiggers
Is I’m the only one.

The wonderful thing about Tiggers
Are Tiggers are wonderful things
Their tops are made out of rubber
Their bottoms are made out of springs
They’re bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy
Fun, fun, fun, fun, FUN!
But the most wonderful thing about Tiggers
Is I’m the only one.
Yes, I’m the only one

Outraged Letters. Jordin Kare on sf grant proposals (A263): ‘For the decade or so during which I was a freelance rocket scientist (“Will design satellites for food”) I would often appear on SF convention panels surrounded by authors. When asked to introduce myself, I would explain that I, too, wrote both science fiction and fantasy, with the science fiction generally being titled “Technical Proposal” and the fantasy titled “Budget Proposal”.’

Nomad Scry: That’s right. Although the actual Jaffee was providing the voice, the words and thoughts were fictional. Why 7? Just because 7 is the go-to number when you need a number related to supernatural matters.

It took five hours to do a virus check on my computer. Why? Because I’m an idiot. I had my pocket drive hooked up to do my regular backup. Dilly virus checker decided to check that drive too. The reason this is doubly silly is because I don’t usually do my backup until after I’ve done the virus check so I don’t copy infected file. It check an old backup unnecessarily. 🙂

Oh so I went to the doctor and to add to my joy (see above) I am now 40. Welcoming me into this lovely year of life is mammograms. TMI? I don’t care, I’m telling you all anyway. I have never had one and now I get to go do that.

I also have to have some more lovely bloodwork done so they can keep my crazy bad anemia down to a dull roar. Boo for needles.

Oh and one more thing. The doctor prescribed this medicine called Midrin for me. I hope it works because end of month spreadsheet hell starts at midnight and I have to take my Gram to the doctor tomorrow too.

I just remembered another thought I had while I was writing Episode 6 of Questors: There are 7 people in the questing party. Trucker Overdrive (within the story, that is) thinks that entertaining a number of spectators at least equal to the number of performers is a fair minimum standard for the success of a play.

Cj: I can relate to the work thing. Even though it’s technically a holiday here, I’m still sitting at my desk. I have to do some work or I’ll be completely overwhelmed tomorrow with a very tight deadline.

Oh, and now that my hubby’s home for the summer, I have a maid, if not a wife.